Mining

Apple’s second press blitz of the autumn delivered details on a bunch of new devices. But the company also made some announcements on the environmental front that are generating buzz and raising questions, particularly regarding the recycled materials some of its 2018 product line will use. Read More >>

The irony of transitioning to clean energy is we’re going to have to mine the shit out of the Earth to do it. Much like our computers and smartphones, wind turbines and solar panels are high-tech devices whose production demands a smattering of metals and minerals from across the periodic table and the planet. Read More >>

Every day seems to bring fresh news of a cryptocurrency exchange robbed by hackers. But thieves in Iceland have reportedly taken it up a notch, stealing around 600 computers that are used to mine bitcoin and its crypto-cousins. Read More >>

It’s one thing to wake up and discover that you missed the boat on a cryptocurrency boom that’s making a handful of people very wealthy. It’s another thing to find out that your computer is making someone else rich while it gives you poor performance and jacks up your electricity bill. With the spread of cryptojacking, that infuriating scenario is happening to more people. Read More >>

With the meteoric rise in popularity of Ethereum, cryptocurrencies and blockchains are back in the news again. Graphics card prices have soared with the promise that those who have the computers and know-how to do some serious mining can take home huge sums in a Bitcoin-like gold rush to snatch up as much virtual currency as possible. But how easy is it to make your fortune in cryptocurrency? And is it worth your while getting started? Read More >>

Businesses seeing profit in the vast quantities of lithium the world is using for two years then dumping in a landfill think Cornwall could be the place to be soon, as the county's currently un-dug lithium reserves might now be economically viable to recover. Get those old tin mines reopened. Read More >>

The largest great apes on Earth have suffered a “catastrophic” population collapse over the past twenty years, according to a report published by the Wildlife Conservation Society. Grauer’s gorilla, a subspecies found only in the lawless eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, is a victim of the same brutal civil war that claimed up to six million human lives from 1996 to 2003. Read More >>

Kellingley Colliery in North Yorkshire is closing today, bringing about the end of the UK's deep-pit mining industry. And seeing as no one's bothered about the local black stuff any more, the mining equipment -- all £150m worth of it -- is being sealed into the pits. Read More >>

No one has managed to pluck valuable minerals from an asteroid quite yet, but when they do, the legal framework will be firmly in place: President Obama yesterday signed the US Commercial Space Launch Competitiveness Act (CSLCA) into law. Read More >>